Thursday, 6 July 2017

Walk In Silence by John Gordon Sinclair

Today on the blog as part of the Walk in Silence blog tour author John Gordon Sinclair gives us an
insight to the storyline, characters and inspirations behind his latest novel.

“There’s no law that says you have to obey the
law.” Keira Lynch: lawyer.

One week before she is
due to give evidence in the trial of a man who put three bullets in her Keira
Lynch sets off for Albania to honour a promise she made to Kaltrina Dervishi – a
former client.

Before her murder
Kaltrina confided to Keira that she had a young son called Ermir back in
Albania whose life would be in danger if his whereabouts were known. Keira swore
that if anything should happen to Kaltrina, she would make sure Ermir was well
looked after. With the help of a
two-bit punk by the name of Daud Pasha, Keira tracks the boy down, but soon
finds herself in a situation where she’s not only trying to save him, but stop
his life following the same path as hers… and becoming a killer.

Walk In Silence opens with a scene that mirrors a
chapter near the beginning of Blood Whispers (2nd novel) in which we see the
young boy Ermir’s grandparents being murdered, but ‘filmed’ from a different
angle: The neighbours notice a young boy covered in blood outside their window
and realise it’s Ermir. We then jump forward in time to find Keira Lynch already
in Albania preparing to meet seedy fixer Daud Pasha who claims to know of Ermir’s
whereabouts.

When Keira was just
eight years old she picked up a gun and shot a man. Through troubled teenage
years into adulthood there was only ever one question on her mind…could she
kill again?

Keira Lynch – also
known as - Niamh McGuire, first appeared in Seventy Times Seven and although
important to the story was a relatively minor character. When I finished the
book – set in the early nineties - I wanted to continue the story, but the main
characters of Sean McGuire and Danny McGuire were not suitable to take the
storyline forward.

Keira seemed the
obvious choice. In her first appearance in a leading role (Blood Whispers) she is trying to come to terms with her childhood
and what happened to her, but by the time we get to her in Walk in Silence she
is much more composed and resigned to what she has become. It’s difficult to go
into too much detail without giving away major plot points in each of the three
novels, but Seventy Times Seven, Blood Whispers and Walk In Silence are a loose trilogy with the latter two books much
more closely linked both in plot and character.

Both books have action
that takes place in rural and coastal Albania respectively. There were many
reasons for choosing to locate the book there.

From the golden sandy
beaches that front the Adriatic to the dramatic mountainous regions in the
north Albania is a country of contrast.

The Albanian civil war
in 1997 - sparked by a failed pyramid scheme backed by the government that saw
billion dollar losses for its citizens - led to over 2000 civilian deaths. “Guns
were the first thing we went for, then flour for bread,” said Aleksander
Marleci, a local politician in the town of Shkodra, in northern Albania.

Up until the early nineties it had very few -
if any- cars and the roads so bad that the police would pull drivers over for
driving in a straight line: there were so many potholes that only a drunk
wouldn’t swerve to avoid them. Including these small details elevates what
would have been an ordinary driving scene into battle between driver and road.
It’s one of the nuggets thrown up by research. It’s also interesting
to note that Albania is one of the only countries in the world to ban religion.

The Kosovo Albanian
rebel group the KLA was formed in the wake of the conflict that took place in
the late nineties. Most of those involved went on to join the Albanian army,
the police force or the criminal under world. Even well established criminal
enterprises like the Mafia prefer not to deal with the Albanian underworld
because of their readiness to shoot first and forget about asking questions.

Albania can be as
dangerous as it is beautiful - depending on the company you keep.

With the collapse of
communism and the end of Enva Hoxha’s rule, Albania finally began to open up to
the West and after a massive investment program was voted one of the top ten
holiday destinations in the world by the New York Times. A troubled and
intriguing part of the world with a complex narrative, it’s the perfect setting
for the equally complex Keira Lynch to find herself in a spot of bother.

When writing I try to
imagine watching the movie version of my book (a minor delusion). I edit as if
I’m editing film; nothing stays that holds up the action. Even in conversations
with my literary editor I tend to refer to Chapters as Scenes. In my self
deluded state I can imagine having a conversation with the location manager who
thanks me for setting the book in such a diverse and filmic area of the world.

Walk in Silence by John Gordon Sinclair is out now (Faber & Faber, £12.99)

The first time it
happened Keira had no choice.

The second, she was
protecting her Client. The third time Keira
Lynch killed someone there was no question in her mind…it was becoming too
easy.